| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| gil |
pea and bean leaves, etcWhen I pinch out the tops of my broad beans to encourage podding to start and to discourage blackfly attack, I cook (steam or sweat) them. Really quite good.Was looking up info on peas - does anyone eat pea leaves or shoots in a similar way ? Edible ? According to wikipedia it's a Chinese delicacy. |
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| Bebo |
pea tips are nice in a salad, but I haven't cooked them before. | ||
| Slim |
I worked for an heirloom seed company during my brief time in New Zealand. They grew a 'salad pea' which had quite large and curly tendrils which were picked fresh for the salad. Very tasty, but I've never seen them again.... | ||
| gil |
where does the comma go, if any ? Was it the tendrils that were picked and eaten, or were these incidental to the eating of the uncooked peas/pods ? |
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| Frewen |
I must try cooking borad bean tops - thought never occured to me ! | ||
| Slim |
I believe the plant was grown specifically for the tendrils. Not even sure how the peas themselves tasted. | ||
| gil |
In which case, I wonder what ordinary pea tendrils taste like ?
An experiment for tomorrow, perhaps. Though they're a bit skinny. Would need plenty for a forkful. Thinking further along the same lines, what other parts of veg can be eaten that you don't usually grow them for ? e.g. freshly pulled beetroot leaves are good What about carrot foliage, parsnip leaves, swede leaves ? Can you eat the foliage of Jerusalem artichokes ???? Seems a shame to waste so much green stuff. |
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| Sarah D |
HFW's been eating them/serving them up for a couple of years now. Nip out the tops of the pea plants, leaves, tendrils, the lot, for salads, etc, but before any flowers/peas form - they taste like peas. Grow a line of them to eat like this so you don't decimate your plants intended for pod production. | ||
| Slim |
 Why is this news to you crazy British? 
We sell lots and lots and lots of beet greens. We harvest the entire plants when they've sized up to be a nice set of greens, with just a little hint of a beet at the bottom, and bunch them for sale. Sow a little thicker than beets of course. |
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| gil |
Ah, but that's why I sow perpetual spinach beet (for the leaves) as well as beetROOT.
For me (generally) the whole point of a beet is the root. Baby beets ? Pah ! Or the ones that don't grow up too well. I wish there were beetroots the size of swedes. |
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| cab |
Carrot leaves from really young specimens are okay, but some people react a little badly to them. Parsnip leaves are dubious, swede leaves are nice if they're still tender when you harvest the swede, as are turnip and kohl rabi tops. Parsnip leavea make a decent soup. Salsify leaves are edible but unexciting. Chard roots are basically like beetroot only not quite so good. Dunno about Jerusalem artichoke tops. No idea there. |
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| Frewen |
Trying to get my lot to eat anything green is a headache 
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| Sarah D |
Jerusalem artichoke tops not aprticularly good, I feed them to the goats.
Brussel sprout tops are good, tasting of sprout/cabbage. |
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| Slim |
I've grown quite a few of those, but when you pull one that big you need to shout out a triumphant "BooYaKah!" 
We just harvest & bunch them when they're young and tender because that's the easiest way to sell them. When growers are doing baby greens for salad mixes they just cut the leaves right off of the plants at a very young stage, and let them keep cropping. For the home garden, just a bit at a time makes the most sense for sure! |
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| cab |
Best bit of the sprout plant, I think. |
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| Sarah D |
Have to disagree Sprout is better!
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| Frewen |
I'm growing some red bull sprouts for the first time this year - I have high hopes
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| gil |
Was wondering about this (using other bits of beg) since I left various kales in to go shot, and found the shot bits / kale sprouts were almost as good as sprouting brocoli, but at a different time of year (where I am - fills one of the 'hungry gaps' very well indeed). | ||
| jocorless |
Back to the original question - Pea shoots are lovely in a stir fry - that way you can use the slightly tougher ones that are on the normal vine | ||
| gil |
Excellent - I'll give them a try. I'm in 'waste not, want not' mode - reducing garden/kitchen green waste. |
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| yummersetter |
We first saw pea shoots being grown as a salad crop in Charles Dowding's superb smallholding near Castle Cary. We took a day course there last year, one of the most instructive things I've ever done, I recommend it to others. He writes about it here http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/index.php?main=blog&st=4.
Back in the Spring, M&S were selling peashoot salad bags at a reasonable price for Marks and Spencers, something like £1.60 and it was enough for a good fresh salad with a stirfry the following day, for one person. I haven't seen it recently but don't look at their fresh veg counters much at this time of year. |
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| tahir |
I've used the flowering bits of all sorts of brassicas, while they're tender they're all tasty |